Summer Sea
by akihiko-senpai
Summary: Popuri and Kai have been close ever since they were five years old, but their budding relationship is endangered when they turn twenty-one.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Harvest Moon or anything associated with it.

_Author's Note_: This is my first fic in a long time, haha, and the first for this account. I adore Popuri and Kai together and thought that their relationship was really interesting. I've written thousands of fics for them, but this is the first one I've actually published. Hope you like it. (:

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><p>"<em>Each moment that I wait feels like a year, an eternity. Each moment is as slow and transparent as glass. Through each moment I can see infinite moments lined up, waiting. Why has he gone where I cannot follow?"<br>The Time Traveler's Wife – Audrey Niffenegger_

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><p>"Daddy! Look!"<p>

It didn't take him long to find what she was pointing at. Popuri's father looked up and saw the ship leering at them, approaching gracefully through the fog. And, if he squinted, he could make out a tanned little boy with a purple bandanna that had to be as big as him tied haphazardly around his head.

"Can you see him?"

The first time she saw him was coincidentally the first time he saw the shores of Mineral Town. The ship took its time coming closer until it docked right where Popuri was standing; no matter how he called, her father could not get her to return to their family picnic. She stood there; her fuchsia hair lifted, flapping in the wind, a breathless smile on her little face. It was as if the five year old could sense the importance of the day, as if she knew something far beyond her years. Her mother affectionately called it a woman's intuition in the years that followed.

A tall man with a bandanna that matched the boy's carefully descended from the ship, landing graciously next to Popuri. She stared at him in awe, but he could not hold her attention for very long before it was once again given to the young boy.

He refused for several moments to leap into the man's open arms, and then Popuri called up to him, "Don't be afraid!"

"I'm not afraid," the boy retorted harshly, the tips of his ears turning red. "I...I can get down all on my own. I don't need his help."

Popuri was hard to trick. She folded her arms very tightly and looked up at him with doubt. "Oh yeah?"

"…Yeah!"

"Prove it!"

Moments stretched on, moments which Popuri diligently waited through, watching the boy with an expectant look on her face. These moments, unbeknownst to her, could be considered practice for the awful waiting that loomed before her.

Finally, with a look of pure terror, the boy leapt over the edge of the ship and landed painfully beside her, dropping to his knees. Popuri gasped as the older man hastened to lift the boy up.

"Are you okay?" she asked nervously.

"Of course," the boy replied, dusting his knees off. Popuri's father noted that he was wincing, and he stood in a bit of a crouch. If Popuri noticed this, she said nothing. "I told you I could do it, didn't I?"

She smiled. "Yeah. You did. My name is Popuri. I live here with my family. We take care of chickens! What's your name? How come you're here?"

"My name is Kai!" the little boy exclaimed, suddenly void of pain and fear. "I came here because my ship goes wherever the wind takes it. I'm an adventurer of the sea. I have no family."

Instead of being impressed, Popuri merely looked sympathetic. "That sounds awful lonely."

Young Kai wrinkled up his nose. "What? It's not lonely!"

"Come on, Kai," the older man chuckled, taking the boy's hand. "We've got to get you settled into the Inn. An old friend of mine is going to take care of you."

"Alright," Kai sighed, looking reluctantly at Popuri.

"Wait!" the girl exclaimed, and he instantly turned, wrenching his hand loose to face her. "You're going to be staying here?"

"For the summer," the man answered for him. "Kai can't travel with me all the time. He's too young. So he's going to stay here every summer…at least until he's old enough to travel fulltime."

A bright smile lit up Popuri's entire face. Her little body shook with joy, and then she looked at Kai. She was radiant even then. "We can be friends!" she told him, and then before he could reply, she reached out and straightened his bandanna for him.

The boy's suntanned cheeks turned crimson within seconds. "Y-yeah. Of course. I'll see you soon, Popuri," stuttered the usually confident child.

"Bye!" she stood there waving until he was out of sight, and then ran back to her family, jumping up and down. The sand scattered from the impact of her bare feet, spraying her father. He didn't mind.

"You made a new friend, huh?" he asked his daughter, grinning at her excitement.

"Mhm! His name is Kai, did you hear? And he's an adventurer of the sea! He travels wherever the wind takes him!" Her joyous recitation of his words spewed out with delight that could not be contained. Her father wasn't sure what she had said once she finished, but sensed that it was something to marvel at. Kai had already begun to romance Popuri with his handsome words.

"I don't like him," her brother said simply, taking a roll from her forgotten plate.

Popuri shot him a nasty look. "Who asked _you_, Rick?"

Lilia exchanged a smile with her husband. "I'm very happy for you and your new friend, Popuri," she told her daughter. "I'm sure you two will become very close."

The girl looked taken aback. "Of course we will," she replied, as if it had been plain from the very start. "We're gonna be _best _friends."

* * *

><p>"Wake up! Wake up! Honestly, Rick, get <em>up<em>!"

Popuri picked up a pillow and smacked her brother across the face with it. He shot upright, eyes wide, and upon realizing it was her who had woken him, snatched the pillow back and swore.

"Why do I have to get up now? My alarm hasn't even gone off! You're the one who's supposed to take care of things in the mornings, anyways."

Rick promptly lay back down, but Popuri pulled him back into a sitting position. "Rick, you need to take care of things this morning. Don't you remember what today is?"

"Uh…Tuesday?"

"No! Well, yes, but no. It's the first day of summer!"

Rick lay back down once more and groaned. "So you mean _he's _here."

Popuri looked like she would have loved to beat him a few more times with the pillow, but merely said, "Yes. And you need to take care of things here. See you later, brother."

"Hey! You really shouldn't go out there, you know, you're just wasting your time going after him and-,"

By the time Rick finished, Popuri was already halfway to the beach.

Her feet couldn't carry her there fast enough. The heavy sound of her pounding footsteps echoed throughout the sleeping town. Her bare feet revolted against the coarse roads, but she pressed on. Shoes would have taken too long, anyways.

She got there just in time to see her favorite sight of the year. Kai's ship was pulling in, and she could see him standing at the very front, waving his arms above his head at her, his beacon that shone at the fog's end.

Popuri felt as though she could stand there and watch him forever. To watch him arriving, and not leaving; that was the best feeling of all. Every moment after would be another moment until he left, but for now she could bask in the knowledge that he was coming, he was almost here, he was _here_.

He jumped down before the boat had finished docking, landing much more gracefully than he had years ago, and then they raced to each other, meeting with a laughable crash as they both embraced each other at once.

"It's so good to see you!"

"I've missed you so much!"

"I can't believe you're finally here!"

"I can't believe I'm here!"

Words fluttered out of their mouths too fast to really keep track of them. They said the same things they said every year and held back the same things they held back every year. The fifteen year olds were just content to hold onto each other and babble about their time apart until someone pulled one of them away.

Like always, it was Kai's mentor who pulled him back.

"C'mon, Kai. Gotta get you situated again with Doug. Nice seeing you, Popuri."

"You too," she told the man as politely as possible. Every bit of her ached to lash out at him. How _dare _he ruin her reunion? How dare he bring Kai to her only to take him away at the end of summer? It was easier to be mad at him for offering Kai an escape than at Kai for taking hold of the offer, and so she unleashed her anger onto him whenever she was feeling particularly low.

Kai turned a crooked smile to her. "As soon as things settle down, I'll find you. Okay?"

"Okay," she murmured, smiling as well. Her chest lifted and then relaxed with a deep, soothing breath. Kai was there. When he was there, everything was better.

Time passed quickly. Summer always came and went much too fast. They spent all day and much of the night chatting about their time apart, about their individual futures, and about their friendship, and they didn't exhaust even half of their conversational topics by the last night.

"I can't believe it," Popuri whispered. She and Kai were lying on the beach, staring up at the stars that shone through the hazy night sky. "You're going to leave."

"I'll come back," Kai murmured, his voice sleepy. He hadn't slept the night before, torn between the painful itching to be back at sea once again and the troubling idea of being away from Popuri for another year.

_That's what my dad said_, Popuri wanted to tell him. She bit her tongue and forced the words back. It was her last night with Kai, and she was not about to spoil it with her problems. It was a night to spend close together, lamenting the time they'd have to spend apart as they always did.

"Not until next year," Popuri mumbled.

Kai looked over at her and then, so gently that she wondered if she had imagined it, set his hand on hers.

"Popuri…I…" his cheeks flared as he looked into her eyes. "I…I'm really going to miss you."

"I'm going to miss you too."

"But, I…" he drifted off again.

"Don't be afraid," Popuri told him teasingly.

He grinned. "I'm not afraid of anything. I'm an adventurer of the sea," he said teasingly.

"Oh, sorry," Popuri shrugged nonchalantly, though her mischievous grin betrayed her. "I forgot."

Kai sat up and then, very softly, pressed his lips against hers. He pulled away so soon she didn't even have time to react, and they stared at each other, shock clearly written on the girl's face.

"I'll admit it, just this once. I'm a little afraid. I'm scared because…I…well…I don't know how to say this. But…I guess the best way to say it would be…I…well…damn it, I really like you, Popuri."

For a moment, Popuri continued to lie on the beach, her eyes wide and only half focused on his. The confidence drained from his face, replaced with sudden apprehension. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

She pushed herself into a sitting position as well. "Kai, I like you too."

The sailor breathed out a long sigh of relief. "Good."

"Good?"

"I don't know what I would have done if you didn't feel the same way," Kai admitted sheepishly. "You don't know how much courage it took just to say that."

Popuri smiled, but it quickly faltered. "And now you're going away."

Kai stared down at his lap. "Not forever."

"But you're going to spend forever coming and going."

Kai didn't have an answer to that.

* * *

><p>"Popuri," a soothing voice murmured. "Popuri. Popuri. Wake up."<p>

The young woman's eyes slowly flickered open. It was a delight to be woken by her mother rather than Rick, who liked to obnoxiously crow and shake her until she had a headache before even getting out of bed. Lilia was dressed simply, but wore such a marvelous smile that Popuri knew even before her memory kicked in that something wonderful was happening.

"He's almost here!" she screamed.

"Nobody cares, Popuri!" her brother's voice sounded from the next room. She paid it no mind. She brushed past her mother, returned to give her a brief peck on the cheek, and then continued her mad dash to the mirror. In the six years that had eclipsed since that first brief kiss, Popuri and Kai's relationship had advanced to unofficial, but very real. Neither of them ever made it clear, but neither of them would have dared to date another person knowing that in only three seasons they would see each other again.

The brush ran painfully through her hair. The discomfort didn't delay her a single second. She pulled on her clean clothes and slipped on her shoes at the same time, and though it was clear her mother was trying to tell her something, she dashed right out the door.

"He's twenty-one now…" Lilia whispered to the empty room. "Oh, Popuri…"

Barley and May laughed as they watched Popuri sprint towards the beach; they each called out a greeting, but she couldn't be stopped. Her feet carried her without conscious thought; after sixteen years of doing the same thing on the first day of every summer, they needed no guiding. They surged forward with careful grace; every step brought her closer to Kai, and a single stumble farther away. She had never run with such precision.

When Popuri finally arrived at the dock, she was shocked to see that the ship was already dropping its anchor.

_How did I arrive a few minutes late_? She wondered anxiously. _I barely stopped at all! I've only been up for five minutes!_

Kai looked at her and she smiled and began to wave, but he quickly looked away. The guilty, depressed look on his face sent chills down her spine. Had he cheated on her? Was that possible, as they weren't even officially together? She hoped he hadn't met someone else. Her world came crashing down around her due to this single snub, and she wasn't even sure what to grieve over yet.

His mentor, the captain- in all these years, she had never bothered to learn his name- glanced over at her and waved.

"A little late this year, eh?" he chuckled. He and the crew thought Popuri's sweet doting was adorable, and teased Kai for it year round.

Popuri's face whitened. Could this be why Kai seemed so upset? No, it couldn't; he wasn't the type to get worked up over something like that. She nodded so pathetically and miserably that the man instantly turned away and busied himself in unloading.

Kai jumped over the edge of the ship and walked to her; she rushed forward and met him only a few steps away from the ship, lunged forward, and wrapped her arms around him. His lips found her forehead, and he set his arms far more carefully than usual around her. Everything felt wrong. They had made a promise years ago to never let a single year change them, and yet Kai seemed to be a completely different person.

"I missed you," she whispered. She wanted to hear all the kind words he had ever told her; she wanted proof, any kind of proof, that he still felt the same way about her.

"Me too," he replied. That wasn't good enough for her. She buried her face in his chest and wished he would have hidden this sadness from her until the end of summer. She couldn't stand him to be here and so visibly upset. She thought that if she could, she would upturn the entire world to turn that grimace into a real smile. She knew it was foolish, to put him so high on her priorities, but she couldn't help it. He was at the top of the list and didn't even know it.

"Enjoy your last summer with him, Popuri," Kai's mentor said, setting his hand on her shoulder. "Let's go check in with Doug, Kai."

"What?" Popuri exploded. Kai was being reluctantly led away by his mentor, and in his embarrassment did nothing but shoot an apologetic glance at his almost girlfriend. She felt tears threatening to spill over and fought them. She wanted to be mad. Being mad was easier. How could this be his last summer? How could he have not told her that?

Was he really choosing the sea over her?


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Harvest Moon or anything associated with it.

_Author's Note_: I initially planned to release this as just a one-shot, but it was so long I decided to break it up into two haha. Enjoy. (:

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><p>"<em>Time passes and the pain begins to roll in and out as though it's a woman standing at an ironing board, passing the iron back and forth, back and forth across a white tablecloth."<br>The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger_

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><p>"Popuri…don't you remember what Greg said when we were five?"<p>

"Who is Greg? And how am I supposed to remember what he said if I was only five?" Popuri snapped. Her usually kind demeanor had evaporated and unfamiliar anger had taken her over. She lashed out without wanting to, but couldn't stop herself. If she tried to, she would only burst into tears, and she was reluctant to give Kai that satisfaction.

Kai laughed half-heartedly. "He's the captain of my ship. I've never told you his name in all of the conversations we've ever had?"

She shook her head.

He heisted and then laughed even harder. His laugh fell flatly; it was not the boisterous, lovely sound it usually was. "Wow. That's pretty stupid of me. Well, that's who he is. And when we were five, he told you I would be coming here only until I was old enough to 'travel fulltime'…remember?"

A shudder ran through Popuri as she remembered their first meeting. That previous anger she had felt towards Greg returned. She wished he hadn't sailed away already. It was too hard being mad at Kai- especially when he was looking at her with such ashamed eyes. Being angry at the man who was giving him this other option…now that was easy.

"I hate him," she whispered, and the tears began to leak out. Anger and sadness were so closely tied that they had the tendency to spill out when one was being relied on too heavily. "I hate him so much."

Kai was so taken aback by these vindictive words that he didn't speak for several moments. Popuri had never admitted to disliking something, let alone hating it. The only thing she told him she didn't like was the sad fact that he had to leave every summer; hating a person was unlike her, and he wasn't ready to comprehend that his news had pushed her to that brink.

After several long moments of her furiously wiping her eyes, he stepped forward and wiped them himself with gentle fingers. She sniffed and whimpered. That was also unlike her. In their long years together, Kai had never truly seen her cry.

"Why don't you want to stay with me?" she asked him; it had been hiding in the corner of her mind this entire time, and yet it picked that exact moment to leap forward and reveal itself. Kai wished she had saved the question.

"It's not that Popuri, I just…it's…look, can we not talk about this for a while? I just want to enjoy this summer with you."

That wasn't what Popuri wanted to hear at all. She wanted to know how he could do this to her, how he could make her fall in love with him and then let her down so harshly. She wanted to know if she was ever going to see him again.

But Popuri loved him far more than she loved herself, and so she went against her will and agreed to these unfair conditions.

And so they spent one last summer together.

* * *

><p>"It's the last day. Will you answer my question now? Are we ever going to see each other or not?"<p>

Kai drew pictures in the sand. He had hoped a summer with her would help him make up his mind or help him decide what to say to her, but it had done neither.

"Popuri…I…"

Several long moments passed.

"Make up your mind or I am leaving. I'm not kidding Kai. I won't wait for you any longer! I've waited three seasons every year for sixteen years now! Do you know how much that takes out on a person?"

"I've waited to see you too-,"

"It's different for me!" Popuri cried out. Sixteen years of bottled up disdain for their distance erupted at once. "It's different and you know it! You're out there having the time of your life, doing what you love best. I'm here waiting for what I love best. Do you see where our problem is? I love you more than you love me and so I'm stuck here every year, _every _miserable year hoping that one day you don't leave. Do you know how hard it is for me to accept that it's so easy for you to decide to never see me again?"

"I do want to come back here, it's just an unnecessary trip for Greg to make and his crew won't take it now that I'm older, I do want to come see you Popuri-,"

"That's stupid!" she interrupted, shocking Kai. "You're stupid!"

That was a pathetic insult. It fell flat between the two of them, and yet it was so powerful for Popuri that Kai thought he might cry.

And tears were unacceptable for an adventurer of the sea.

"Oh, really? _I'm _the stupid one? You're the one who waits here for me all year. What, is there nothing better for you to do than sit here and wait? You have a life, you have friends, you have a family, are they that meaningless to you that the only thing worth living for is a stupid kid you know was born to be on the sea?"

Kai truly thought he had gotten back at her, for she turned at his words and began to walk away, but just before she was out of earshot she turned to him with a mixture of fury and misery and said, "I used to think so."

The adventurer of the sea stared after her and realized that this would be the last time he would see Popuri.

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><p>The year passed slowly and uneventfully. Lilia comforted Popuri to the best of her ability, but nothing could make the once bright, cheery girl fully whole again. Something inside her had been broken; so many years wasted on waiting had worn her down, and her insistent smile had finally given in to the world's horrors and agreed to lay low. She was not completely depressed; she was still the optimistic woman she had always been, and yet there was something so dejected about her that people had a hard time speaking to her.<p>

Rick, Kai's biggest critic, had no words to say about him. He wasn't sure what he had done to Popuri- nobody was, in fact- but he knew it was terrible, and he knew it was best not to remind his sister of it. He wasn't sure he wanted to know what had torn that inseparable pair apart.

On the first day of summer, Popuri awoke two hours earlier than usual- just as she had always done before. It seemed that perhaps old habits died hard. Had her body truly gotten so used to waking up extra early on that one day that it was going to continue doing so, or had she subconsciously woken herself as if sensing she must?

She couldn't help herself. Her mother and brother had planned on sleeping in this year as well, so she tiptoed around the house, getting herself dressed up, and then ran to the beach. A sudden sense of hope, of longing, filled her quick steps. The anger she had felt at Kai had faded only a season after their parting, and had long been replaced with a gaping hole of agony due to the loss of her best friend. That hole now sung with expectations as she dashed towards the dock. Her body surged forward, her smile grew, she was running so fast that she knew she would come crashing down any second…

She fell to her knees on the beach, her long pink hair brushing the sand. There was no ship.

Popuri slammed her fists down onto the sand before her and began to cry. She had not cried since the last day she had seen him, had sworn to herself that she wouldn't cry, and yet there was she, crying.

She wished so desperately that she had said a proper goodbye to him. She knew, truly knew, that neither of them had meant the cruel words they had said to each other. They had been spoken only out of frustration and confusion. If only she had returned to the beach to speak to him, if only he had come after her…

And now she was never going to see him again.

She let this idea fully wash over her for the first time. Of course she had encountered it thousands of times before, but she had never truly considered it. Now that she did, the tears fell faster and faster down her burning cheeks. Why did it have to end this way? Why couldn't she entice Kai the way the sea did?

"It's not my fault," she promised herself. She remembered the summer she had to tell Kai that her father had left and not returned. He had told her those same words as she held back tears. _"It's not your fault,"_ he had promised her.

Hours passed in which she sat on the beach as the first warm summer sun rose up, mourning her lost love the entire time. The saddest part, she had decided, was that they had never _fully _owned up to the depths of their feelings for each other; they had instead let time pass, content to wait another summer to confide in each other the truth.

And this time, they had departed without realizing they didn't have another summer to rely on.

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><p>That summer that passed was the worst of Popuri's life. She had been able to deny the pain and greet everyone as cheerfully as ever during the long seasons of fall, winter, and spring, but summer presented a challenge she wasn't ready for. Popsicles and fireworks were not the same without Kai, who used to meet her at the beach every night with two popsicles. They would either watch fireworks that other town members had gotten permission to set up, or mischievous Kai would steal some and set them off just for her. Mayor Thomas would come running, but never caught them. He probably knew, Popuri realized now, but didn't have the heart to spoil the fun of the summer lovers.<p>

The pain of losing someone was not new to her, of course. When her father had gone to search for a cure to her mother's disease and had never returned, Popuri had been devastated. Her mother's constant failing health was a trickling hurt that tried its hardest to desensitize her to the idea that one day, her mother would be lost forever.

But the pain of losing Kai was something that she hadn't been prepared for in the least. She had given her heart up to him, complete with its darkest secrets and most precious memories, and he had left it broken on the shore of Mineral Town's beach.

However, time goes on no matter how hurt you are, and Popuri reluctantly learned that. The pain dulled with time, and she fell into a routine that made it easier to handle the hurt Kai had dealt her. And, in that mind-numbing routine, days passed and passed and passed until the autumn wind began to lift her heavy heart with hesitant hope for the future.

* * *

><p>A knock on the door woke Popuri early on the first morning of autumn. She woke, relieved to know that summer was over, and called out, "Rick, go ahead and do my morning chores for me just this once. I'd like to sleep in a bit."<p>

Her brother had been awfully understanding during the past season, so she didn't understand why he continued to knock even after she called to him with that simple request. The knocking didn't stop; it continued at a steady rate for at least five minutes until Popuri forced herself out of bed, running her hand through her hair and sighing as she opened the door.

"Rick, could you just-,"

Kai stood there, drenched. Popuri listened for a moment, but heard no rain. _Maybe I'm dreaming_, she thought to herself. Kai couldn't be there, and if that was Kai, why would he be wet when the rain didn't start to come until at least mid-autumn? She stood there, eyes wide and despondent. Hope for better days had lifted her spirits, but her hope in him had faded with the summer.

"Can I have a towel?" he asked rather bashfully.

Popuri said nothing, but walked past him to the hallway, opened up the closet door, took out a towel, and returned to her doorway without uttering a single he fall into the ocean, maybe, she wondered? That was an even stranger notion to accept than that he was there on an autumn day.

She held the towel out to him silently, watching as he pulled his bandana off and towel dried his hair and then wrapped it around his shoulders. He kicked his shoes off, peeled his socks off, and stood barefoot in her doorway, right in front of her.

"Are you cold?" she finally asked him.

"What?"

"Are you cold?"

"Er…yeah, I am, actually," Kai admitted. Popuri was shocked by this as well. Kai would never admit to being affected by the weather. When they were strolling the streets in blistering summer heat, he would pretend to be feeling fine thanks to the 'cool breeze,' and in the freezing summer nights he claimed that the 'warm wind' was keeping him from being cold.

Popuri pulled back the blankets of her bed for him. "Go ahead," she murmured. "You'll feel warmer."

"But-,"

"Go ahead," she repeated, firmly.

Kai obediently crept into her bed, letting her tuck in the blankets around him. His eyes were just as wide as hers. They did not say or do anything too suddenly, as if afraid to scare the other off. Popuri was still convinced that she was dreaming, for there was no possible way he could be here…Kai only came in the summer, and this was autumn…everything was confusing…

"I came back."

"Oh," she answered.

"Not forever."

"What a surprise."

"Popuri," Kai whispered, looking mortified not only to be speaking so seriously to her, but to be coddled as he was. In all the years they had known each other, Kai had been the strong one, and yet here he was owning up to his weaknesses, and preparing to admit to more. It was more than he could handle, and yet he persevered through the strangeness of the situation.

"Yes?"

"I couldn't stand it. I thought of you every single day this past year. I was wrong. Look…I love the ocean. I _love _being out on the ocean. I was born on a ship, I was raised on a ship, I've spent almost the whole year for the past twenty-two years of my life on a ship. I feel most comfortable on a ship. I'm good at working on a ship."

Popuri nodded. His words were not doing anything to alleviate her confusion, but she decided to hear him out.

"But…you know…there's a lot of stuff a ship can't offer to me that I want. Like…like, a family. Or a house I can come home to every day. A stable job, like the one I work at the food shack here, every summer, you know? I like doing that too. And a ship sure as hell can't give me you. Greg doesn't allow girls on the ship, you know."

Popuri reluctantly smiled. She couldn't help it. Seeing Kai's confidence grow before her very own eyes, seeing him there at all, was suddenly too much for her to take. She was smiling wider than ever before.

"And...I've been trying to decide between being with you fulltime or being on that ship fulltim, but…I knew I couldn't do either of those things. I couldn't be away from you all year and I couldn't be away from the ship all year. So…I made a deal with the crew members. From now on, instead of spending every summer with you…I'm going to spend every summer away from you. But I'll be with you every fall, winter, and spring."

Popuri breathed in very sharply. The sudden realization that Kai was there washed over her and she stared at him, eyes wide, unsure what to say.

"Popuri, I love you. But I'd be cheating myself if I stayed away from a ship all year of every year. I have to spend one season at the most out there…do you understand? I'm ready to be 'tied down,' like I used to call it, I'm ready to stay with you forever, to start a family here in Mineral Town, but I need to spend at least a little bit of time every year out there."

Popuri thought about it for a moment. She considered saying, _No! That's not enough! I want you all year! _But after thinking it through, she decided that his conditions were acceptable. She remembered very well that look on his face at the end of every summer, torn between the sadness of parting for another year and the excitement of being out on the sea. He was offering her the majority of his life; he was putting her at the top of his priorities…

She was going to accept this deal, though she knew every summer would be hard, because she cared for him too much to stop him from doing what he loved.

"Okay."

"Okay? So, you're okay with all of this? You're…not mad?"

"I'm…I'm a little sad. But I'm mostly happy," she spoke softly, carefully. "I love you too, Kai. You know that I do. So…I'm okay with this. I understand."

He breathed out a sigh of relief.

"But…why are you all wet?"

Kai's cheeks flooded. "Well…um…I kind of…look, I was really excited to get over here, so I may have…miscalculated my jump from the ship."

"You mean…you fell in the water."

"I _jumped _in the water."

"You tried to jump onto the dock," Popuri replied with a grin, suppressing sudden laughter. "And you missed!"

"Look, I was _really _excited, okay-,"

"You fell!"

Lilia looked up from her place in the kitchen when she heard the familiar sound of their laughter. Rick went charging past her, but she grabbed his shirt and pulled him to a stop.

"Mom, that guy totally broke her heart and-,"

"Let them work things out," Lilia replied. "It's fall, Rick. And he's here. Kai isn't playing around. Give your sister a chance."

And so Rick reluctantly stood there, and he too listened to the sorely missed sound of Popuri's laughter flooding from her bedroom.

* * *

><p>On the first day of summer, Popuri watched her adventurer of the seas sail away from her. They had spent the past few seasons together happily, and though she had expected his departure to open up a new wound in her heart, saying goodbye to him had been simple.<p>

Compared to waiting through fall, winter, _and _spring for him, summer was a cinch. Summer would fly by, for she would do her best to enjoy it. There would be no more moping around until his return, no more wallowing in the sadness of his absence. Only one short season separated them from each other now, and she would spend that time celebrating the beauty in her life she had not appreciated in a long time.

It would be strange; another summer without the joy of fireworks and popsicles and causing mischief and staying up late with Kai…but she would spend the summer doing something she loved, as he did. All she had to do was discover what it was she loved to do.

"Goodbye, Kai," she murmured. "I'll see you in autumn."

And with that, she turned and headed back towards home, where there was much work to do for the start of summer.


End file.
